Stenhousemuir man who raped three teenage girls - one only 13 - jailed

Karl Calder-Harley, 26, targeted the 13-year-old after finding her on TikTok. He messaged her on Snapchat, and she after agreed to meet him, he drove her to a spot near Throsk.

He told her he had a knife, groped her leg and breasts, took off her clothes, and raped her in his customised Ford Mondeo.

The High Court in Stirling heard that he gave the "naive" youngster money, took her phone off her while she was in his car, and after the rape told her not to save any of the Snapchat messages they had exchanged.

The rape occurred in December 2020 just two to three days after the child's 13th birthday, when Calder-Harley was almost 24.

The incident came to the attention of police but when Calder-Harley was arrested he gave a "no comment" interview.

Officers spoke to other girls he might have associated with.

The court heard a 15-year-old girl revealed that she too had been raped by Calder-Harley, who used to collect her in her school uniform from her Stirlingshire high school.

At the time, in April to June 2016, Calder-Harley – who has since been convicted for being concerned in the supply of cocaine and has a previous conviction for an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act – was 20.

He was only 18 when he raped his first victim, a woman, also 18, with whom he had been in a relationship between June 2013 and June 2016.

The woman, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said the incident had left her crying and she had pleaded with him to stop but he continued through her tears.

She told jurors: "I was saying stop, stop, but the minute I would move he forced me back down on the bed."

She said she had been manipulated, had her phoned smashed, her clothes ripped, and had been punched and pushed downstairs by Calder-Harley during their relationship in Stenhousemuir.

After a four-day trial at the High Court in Stirling, a jury of eight women and seven men took less than three hours yesterday (Monday) to find Calder-Harley, an unemployed dumper driver, of Stenhousemuir, guilty of three charges of rape and one of having under-age sex. He had denied the charges and said the rapes never happened.

He sobbed as the verdicts were returned and judge Lord Colbeck revoked his bail.

He was remanded in custody for reports until October 3 at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Prosecutor Chris Macintosh said Calder-Harley had "preyed on three naive and immature young girls to satisfy his own needs".

Solicitor-advocate Simon White, defending, reserved mitigation.